


Monkshood

by Classpectanon



Series: Wolfsbane [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Cooking, F/F, Magic, Mutual Pining, Poison, Potions, Scars, Slice of Life, Spirits, Werewolves, Witches, they're lesbians harold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28682934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Classpectanon/pseuds/Classpectanon
Summary: The axe went sailing, sailing, into the edge of the tree with a loud, meaty thwack, always a satisfying sound to hear, gouging out a wedge of wood. Jade put her foot on the bottom of the trunk, blessing the clear weather, and yanked the axe's head out before reeling back and swinging again. Yank, swing, until she carved out the complete chunk. Then, to the other side, tensing her muscles, and letting out a breath-expelling kiai as she twisted violently, ramming the axe into the body of the stiff young pine. Quickly, she tugged the axe out and stepped away as it began to gently twist downwards, creaking with increasing intensity as it collapsed under its own now-tenuous weight, falling to the ground, snapping at the weak points she had introduced.Then, it was trimming, traveling up and down the tree, chopping off limbs as she saw them with more solid, firm cuts, whack, whack, whack. The actual pine-needly branches were snapped free with her hands after a large enough pile had accumulated, into a second, delightful-smelling pile, Jade's hands sticky with gentle trickles of sap.10/365
Relationships: Jade Harley/Rose Lalonde
Series: Wolfsbane [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2102355
Kudos: 11





	Monkshood

The axe went sailing, sailing, into the edge of the tree with a loud, meaty _**thwack**_ , always a satisfying sound to hear, gouging out a wedge of wood. Jade put her foot on the bottom of the trunk, blessing the clear weather, and yanked the axe's head out before reeling back and swinging again. Yank, swing, until she carved out the complete chunk. Then, to the other side, tensing her muscles, and letting out a breath-expelling kiai as she twisted violently, ramming the axe into the body of the stiff young pine. Quickly, she tugged the axe out and stepped away as it began to gently twist downwards, creaking with increasing intensity as it collapsed under its own now-tenuous weight, falling to the ground, snapping at the weak points she had introduced.

Then, it was trimming, traveling up and down the tree, chopping off limbs as she saw them with more solid, firm cuts, whack, whack, whack. The actual pine-needly branches were snapped free with her hands after a large enough pile had accumulated, into a second, delightful-smelling pile, Jade's hands sticky with gentle trickles of sap. Once the tree was cleared of its extraneous branches, the sun had begun her high travel into the swirling sky, the moon gently hovering somewhere nearby. The constellations shone through the bright morning sun, pinkish-maroon satellite stones glimmering off the surface of the moon they orbited. It was auspicious, if dangerous, signals for the future, if you were the sort of witch that believed in meteor reading.

Jade was not that kind of witch. She took a minute or two to catch her breath, blessing the crisp, cool mountain air for keeping her sweat evaporated and working the way sweat should work, as opposed to how it worked in the greenhouses of her home. It had been a month since she had moved in with Rose Lalonde, one of the most legendary, and secretive, alchemists of their generation, performing tasks and allowing her and her condition to be studied in exchange for a potion that would kill... Him.

Becquerel. Something a bit like a demon, a bit like a guardian spirit, that had been bequeathed upon Jade by her father after she was born. The golden choker had never been removed from its spot, cleaned around, growing as Jade did, always keeping her protected from serious harm. Lazybones was apparently disinterested in helping her fell trees, though, with the only occasion of his manifestation being early on in her... Apprenticeship? Arrangement? Where a poorly placed cut nearly sent a tree falling onto Jade.

Becquerel had snapped it in half for her.

Pulling out a small cloth from her rucksack, Jade said a couple of magic words she couldn't translate and then placed drops of a lobster shell tincture on it, from a bottle placed in her pocket. The cloth began to swell and expand, and she dropped a branch onto it before placing it on the pile of twigs, watching with awe as it quickly grew to swallow them, unfurling itself into a tightly woven net, compressing them all into as much of a space-filling collection as it could get. She did the same thing with the second enchanted cloth, collecting the larger tree limbs, and threaded her fingers into both nets the best she could, leaving her rucksack where it was for the moment (along with her axe).

The trek was not particularly arduous. Most wildlife had since learned to avoid Jade from the snarling noises she made when threatened, and all of her tasks were definitely contributing to a not-insignificant development of musculature on the otherwise very willowy, looming girl. It was definitely not easy, but for how difficult it was, it was certainly getting eas _ier_. A fifteen minute walk, drawing light trenches of ripped grass in the dirt. There was a noticeable lack of snow recently, which Jade welcomed - as interesting as the snow was as a new, novel experience, she was getting very tired of being wet and also cold. Sure, it gave her an opportunity to sit on a cushion with Rose and enjoy the hearth as she dried off--

Jade shook her head, dismissing such thoughts. It was improper to think about your (boss? business associate?) like that. The tower came into view as she rounded the corner, and, exhausted, she carried on, huffing and puffing with effort. A minute, and then another, and another, of one foot in front of another, dragging one net, then the next. If only there was some sort of tincture that would make her stronger, now that would be useful, but for some reason, Jade insisted on doing things the sort of hard way.

She arrived in short order, bonking the large wooden double doors with her forehead a couple of times to alert Rose that she was there. The door was opened by an expectant Rose Lalonde, who, at this point, had settled in nicely into this sort of routine. "Great work, as usual, Jade. Right in the fire it goes."

"Yeah, I know." Jade replied, a little too exhausted to sound her usual chipper self. Branches snapped along the stone as she hauled and pulled, but that would get cleaned up eventually by Rose. The roaring, purple-flamed hearth had been the regular destination for every tree Jade chopped down, a magical fire that fueled many of the intriguing mechanisms inside of the tower, along with keeping it warm at all times of day. Additionally, according to Rose, it drew "essence" out of things it burned, but Jade was a little more spurious about that one. She gently popped the front of the hearth open with her foot, staring at the flickering lavender inferno, and let go of one net so she could handle the other with both hands, rolling it up to the edge of the hearth and starting to push it up and into the fire.

With a flick of her wand, Rose's telekinetic assistance helped lift and aim it, and with a final push, Jade loaded all the pine needles into it, immediately producing a dark puff of only slightly noxious, greenish-black smoke, before the sizzling sound of boiling sap replaced it with a sweet, sugary-smelling steam. Rose helped from a distance most days for a couple of reasons - one was that she was weak as shit, and the other was an incident two weeks into Jade's stay where she accidentally poked Becquerel's gemstone, which did not end well. Thankfully, not fatal! But Rose did have to tolerate Jade's cooking for a while while her arm healed.

The second net fully loaded in, Jade gently swiped her hands against each other, kicking the hearth's front shut while the scent of burning pines and boiling sap and firewood began to fill the tower. Already, a couple of birds, mostly bluejays, were beginning to gather outside, judging by the noises. "Thank you again for your service, Jade. I really do appreciate it." Rose said, putting her wand away in the pocket of her apron, stained with the results of dozens of experiments.

Rose would never tell Jade this, but Jade's poison was almost all she was working on nowadays. Gathering lightning had become only an occasional pastime. All of her homunculi were put on hold. Jade was never allowed, nor was she aware of, the letters being sent to Rose by crow, asking for her assistance, or something to be made, but they had all been turned down, emphatically. If you asked Rose why she didn't just tell Jade that she-- found her plight to be incredibly interesting, enough to consume most of her waking moments, she would tell you "Why do you care?" and probably turn you into a small lizard of some sort. Temporarily. Probably.

But Jade didn't know enough about alchemy to even know the telltale scent of herbal poisons, or the way specific kinds of teas stained leather a certain way. She didn't know that curious, floral smell surrounding Rose at all hours was the powerful aroma of her experimental toxins.

And Rose would like to keep it that way.

"Of course! I'd do anything to get rid of him, so this is really a small price to pay for that. This is priceless to me." Jade said, having expressed a similarly sappy sentiment ever other time Rose complimented her for a job well done. Rose never got tired of it, the constant exhortations that Rose was doing something good, something useful, that Rose was saving her life. It only made her determination grow each day she got to soak it in through her ears. Rose had never met a snippy moment coming out of Jade - she was, perhaps, the most earnest, sincere person Rose had ever met. "I'm going to go start getting the trunk, okay?"

Rose smiled just a bit, much more subdued compared to Jade's toothy, fangsome grin, almost always present nowadays except when she was close to sleep. "Of course. I'll start working on dinner."

Jade was not a very good cook. Sure, everything she made was effective at containing "the things necessary for living", such as calories and nutrients, but it all tasted awful, and, presumably because of the wolf spirit possessing her, she liked her meat _very_ rare, something that caused Rose no small amount of amusing distress while she was recovering from her clawing. After Jade shut the front door behind her, Rose got to the kitchen, snapping her fingers, purple flame feeding itself through the copper pipework until it belched out of her stove.

As she stood in front of the sink, unwrapping bandages from her right arm, she looked at those three parallel cuts on her forearm, rapidly fading into scar, with a sense of strange, immaterial fondness, the likes of wish she couldn't really explain to you no matter how hard you asked. A lesser alchemist would've given up at this point, Rose mused to herself, dousing her skin with warm water and soap, applying some alcohol to her cuts - at this point, it didn't even sting, but it was habit and she appreciated the scent - and dried off before grabbing fresh bandages and covering her injuries back up. She took one of Jade's hair ties that she had been gifted off the dining table and pulled her hair upwards in a small, snow-white bun, easier to keep out of the way than the hairband.

She got to cutting. One of the essential skills of alchemy was a steady hand and tolerance to heat, which generally meant most alchemists were also decent chefs at minimum, unless they had bad taste, which Rose was certain she didn't have. She got to work, peeling potatoes with a small knife, flicking the skins into a pile on her cutting board, humming gently to herself with the birdsong outside. A small crow worked its way in through a hidden crevice somehow, but Rose paid it no mind - he just came in to peck at some of her scraps and then left, as he did every so often. Each potato was held with a firm hand and then slowly cut into cubes. What Rose possessed in precision, she lacked in speed and desire to accidentally nick her fingers more than necessary.

She grabbed a small rag and washed her knife with a bit of water from the sink before wiping it clean of potato juice. Next came a few onions, which she cut the tops and bottoms off of, peeled out the outer layer, and then cut into as small of pieces as she could manage, before going to grab her _bigger_ knife. Grabbing the handle firmly with one hand and putting her palm against the non-sharp side of the knife's tip, she began to rock the knife back and forth in a circular chopping motion in order to more thoroughly demolish the pile of onion material. Jade didn't like the big chunks that Rose did when it came to the acerbic vegetable, and so Rose cut them tiny.

She paid the tears trickling out of her face no mind. Unlike some people, Rose was very much in control of her emotions at all times, and this was merely a chemical reaction with some substance in the onion with the air to produce the acrid aroma that brought her such misery. A small collection of more vegetables were chopped with equal slowness into bite size pieces, and then it was all scraped into an waiting cauldron (the kind for cooking, not the enchanted kind necessary for proper potion-making), filled with water, and set to a boil.

After chucking the scraps into the hearth, next came the decidedly unglamorous task of preparing pasta, a foreign kind of unleavened grain product that Jade had introduced her to. Rose typically used the allotments of wheat she received from her grocers for bread, but, well, when the possessed girl you were ~~absolutely not in love with~~ fond of wanted a particular meal and you had in your abilities a way to make said meal, you best damn well make it for her. She worked arduously, two of her precious eggs into a pile of flour, kneaded with as much energy as her short arms could muster.

Before Jade arrived, Rose had never put that much effort into her meals. She worked for a solid hour and a half, taking only slightly regular breaks to wipe sweat off her brow, only just managing to finish laminating the dough by the time Jade returned, as was signaled by the sounds of logs being split outside. Apparently it was easier for her to drag the trunk (in small chunks, Rose didn't think Jade was _that_ strong when she wasn't transformed) one at a time before chopping them outside. Rose usually got firewood delivered to her, but sending out a work order to the traders at the base of the mountain was time spent writing she wasn't using trying to solve Jade's problem (and it saved her money, and it meant Jade couldn't see just how much effort Rose put in for her - win win win).

She retrieved her largest knife and cut the dough into wide ribbons, and from there, into smaller rectangles, with the uneven edges becoming little wiggly scraps that she would gladly consume either way. By now, the water in the pot had been transmuted, as if by magic, into a delightful smelling, golden vegetable stock, and Rose went ahead and dumped the noodles in, tapping the cauldron twice with the side of her wand so it would begin gently stirring itself. She dampened a towel and wiped her face clean, removing the hair tie and letting the bun fall down before putting the hairband back into its rightful place.

A visibly exhausted Jade, axe in hand, busted through the doors a little bit later. "I'll feed the fire after food, if that's okay. Is dinner ready?" She asked with a low, groaning tone, weariness dripping out of her excited voice, gently setting the axe down against the stone wall. Rose was already getting bowls.

"Yes, it is. Sit down, I'll serve you." Rose answered, her voice a little more quiet than usual.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. All views, kudos, comments, and bookmarks are appreciated.  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/classpectanon)


End file.
